What an excellent italian western!Cooper (Van Heflin) gets lucky and strikes gold in a mine. His unnamed partner attempts to double cross him and a gunfight ensues. The mine caves in and only cooper survives.He travels back to the nearest town (the desert sun almost kills him) and telegrapghs "the only man he can trust", who comes in the form of Manolo his estranged son played by George Hilton, to help him travel back to the mine and dig the gold out again.When a mysterious blonde man (played with malicious glee by Klaus Kinski) arrives in town looking for Manolo, Cooper decides it was unwise to trust his estranged son in the first place so he hires an old friend/nemesis (Gilbert Roland) to help protect him during the travel.

There is very little gunplay except for a very well thought out action set piece during the very beginning of the four's journey to the mine and then later at the very end.

The focus is on the characters and it plays out very well

This can certainly be in somebodies top 30.

Did anybody else get the feeling that Kinski and Hilton were lovers in the movie?

I think I saw this at the theatre, Though I can't be sure. One of these days I'm gonna make a check at the library and see on newspapers the programs of the theatre near my home in the '60's and reconstruct my SW viewer career. Anyway, on the strenght of the recommendation of the two illustrious contributors above I decided to (re)watch it and wasn't let down. Yes this is good. Mostly for the dialogues. These are among the best I've heard in a long time: I presume the responsability is all Di Leo's. The movie is very well shot. Which is very strange. The actors are good, but Heflin (not my favourite actor) and Kinski are fenomenal. The score is divided: sometime it fits, sometime looks like it was written for a giallo.Some logical grip: why the 4 were attacked the first time on the way to the mine?

Some logical grip: why the 4 were attacked the first time on the way to the mine?

Some reference was made that the fellows who attacked the four were hired by the merchant who sold Heflin the equipment for the trip.My guess would be that the merchant wanted to kill them and get the equipment back to re-sell.

I have seen many SWs in my life, but I don't recall seeing this one before and I decided to give it a try. What an great movie!! It is probably a low-budget one, but the acting, (particularly Van Hefling and Gilbert Roland) is excellent. The story deviates from the mainstream SWs, but keep's one's attention to the screen from the first few minutes until the very end.

I don't think it is a great SW. It is different from the usual SW stories, with some similarities to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre storywise.

But like many of those SWs which try to tell a more dramatic story the characters are a bit too stereotyped to make the drama really work. And the SW directing is not always appropriate for the story, but it has its moments, and some people really like it.